New problem ! Head gasket ? *** !

[icanfixall]

Pull the intake and reuseing it apply some rtv on both sides of the gasket. If its not damaged in the gasket seating areas it will hold. Its not the best idea but sometimes we do what we have to do to get by. A razor blade under the front and rear of the valey pan will cut it loose easily. Maybe the name of the cylinder head store was Alabama cylinder heads or Clearwater cylinder heads or

 

[homelessduck]

The reason I asked about the intake cracking is because it has an ats kit and I can't get to the passenger side intake bolts without removing the turbo , which means removing the engine again . I'll pull it if I have to , but if I can get away with just removing the driver side intake bolts it will save me a lot of time and work .

 

[homelessduck]

I decided to replace the head . Last night I removed the core support , rad , etc . Now I just have to unbolt the motor mounts , trans. and pull it out .

I had my spair head mag'ed and hot tanked .. They said its good . So I asked to have it surfaced and they referred me to another machine shop because these heads are ******* their bits (?) . The other shop did some basics tests on it , said it doesn't need surfacing .. but he found small cracks in the intake ports . He said it was normal; that they all look like that .. He said it looked very good and not to worry about the cracks .

Thoughts ?

 

[icanfixall]

Cracks are not normal in the intakes. That guy is smoking crack. By any chance did he tell you how long it will be before the cracks are a problem... Now a cracke in the precups is a known issue but they really don't cause any issues unless they are thru the fire ring. Glad you didn't mill the head. Thats a last resort thing. Most machine shops don't have a cutter that can cut the precups and the heads at the same time.. Precups are inconel material and hard as hell. It requires a special cutter bit to do it properly. And don't let a shop take them out and mill the head and surface grind the cups on a belt sander... The cups installed height it + or - .02.5. Thats 2 1/2 thousands up or below the head....

 

[typ4]

Had to be the precups, intakes dont ever crack.

 

[homelessduck]

I probably meant precups .. Sorry , I'm not very familiar with what I'm looking at . The cracks are on the intake valve side , where they seat into the head . I'll try to take a picture .

 

[homelessduck]

Sorry for. the poor picture , it was the best I could do with my phone .

 

[homelessduck]

I see what the pre cups are now .. It's not cracked there , its where the intake valve seats .

 

[Knuckledragger]

That kind of crack is not a problem that you would worry about. It may have been from any number of causes, including casting flaws, but it will not give any coolant leakage problems. A more common crack is between the intake and exhaust seats. That may cause problems if not corrected or replaced.

Do a valve job and run it.

 

[hairyboxnoogle]

depends how much water is in the oil. i think he could be ok assuming the engine didnt have 2 gallons of water dumped into the oil.

 

[homelessduck]

Thanks guys !

I pulled the head today . The brand new Felpro gasket disintegrated as I pulled the head off ... The exhaust manifold and #2 cylinder were full of coolant . I will be replacing the new VP gasket even though there was no damage to it while removing the head / intake . I'm currently waiting to hear from the machine shop about the head . If its cracked or warped I will continue installing my good head . If the head is fine I will rebuild the trans/clutch in the new truck .

Thanks for all of the help !

 

[redmondjp]

Thanks guys !

I pulled the head today . The brand new Felpro gasket disintegrated as I pulled the head off ... The exhaust manifold and #2 cylinder were full of coolant . I will be replacing the new VP gasket even though there was no damage to it while removing the head / intake . I'm currently waiting to hear from the machine shop about the head . If its cracked or warped I will continue installing my good head . If the head is fine I will rebuild the trans/clutch in the new truck .

Thanks for all of the help !

Thanks for the update, but you're not done yet! While that head is off, it is very important for you to use a precision-ground straight edge to check the flatness of the block deck. Heath on another active thread here found that his block surface was off by quite a bit (and required machining), and this will cause blown head gaskets.

It's a good time to chase out the head bolt threads too. While on the topic of head bolts, you also want to clean out any accumulated oil or coolant that is sitting in the bottom of the bolt holes in the block - it is actually possible to crack the block while tightening the bolt if there is oil trapped in the bottom of the hole.

 

[hesutton]

Thanks for the update, but you're not done yet! While that head is off, it is very important for you to use a precision-ground straight edge to check the flatness of the block deck. Heath on another active thread here found that his block surface was off by quite a bit (and required machining), and this will cause blown head gaskets.

It's a good time to chase out the head bolt threads too. While on the topic of head bolts, you also want to clean out any accumulated oil or coolant that is sitting in the bottom of the bolt holes in the block - it is actually possible to crack the block while tightening the bolt if there is oil trapped in the bottom of the hole.

Yep. I agree with all the above. If the deck or head or both are warped, you'll have another failure soon. Been there and done that........it sucks! I again suggest having a look at the bearings prior to buttoning everything back up. Hang in there. You will get this thing done and back on the road.

Heath

 

[homelessduck]

I will definitely check the block deck , and now that the engine is pulled again I will check out the bearings . The threads should be fine considering I just chased them , but I will do it again anyway The only thing I'm worried about is installing the engine to the trans . I only have gravel to work in , and the engine lift doesn't like to roll smoothly

 

[hesutton]

I will definitely check the block deck , and now that the engine is pulled again I will check out the bearings . The threads should be fine considering I just chased them , but I will do it again anyway The only thing I'm worried about is installing the engine to the trans . I only have gravel to work in , and the engine lift doesn't like to roll smoothly

Good ideas there. If you can get a few peices of plywood to put over the gravel, that's help a lot in getting the cherry picker to move where and when you need it to.

Heath